According to Bloomsberg, the unidentified man posed as Representative Donald Payne Jr. (D-NJ) and passed a security screening with the Secret Service before entering the event. A spokesperson for the Secret Service, Brian Leary, said of the incident, “This guy went through security, fully screened.” I guess that’s supposed to make us feel better that the guy wasn’t a security threat, but it does raise some questions about what kind of screening the agency is doing if they can’t even detect a fake ID — if they even asked for his ID in the first place.

You might have heard about the possible racial angle to the security mess-ups, especially since TheNew York Times recently gave a front-page voice to the widespread fears in the black community that the Secret Service’s less-than-stellar protection of President Obama is a result of his race. While the Secret Service has consistently denied the racial implications of the security breaches, insisting that its agents “recognize that protecting the president is a sacred trust we have with the American public," might not be enough. The prestigious federal agency might need to step up their efforts if they want people to believe that they're still well-suited to the task of protecting our nation’s leaders.